Everton 0 Liverpool 0 (March 3 2019)

[tlw content]

 

 

 

Report by

Dave Usher

 

There goes top spot then. Didn't take long for that seven point lead to go up in smoke. It's not easy though when we're having to play in other team's cup finals every other week. If only Everton had put up this kind of fight when they played City.

 

Maybe United will match last week's effort when they face their 'noisy neighbours', but don't bank on it, and I can guarantee that the Chelsea that shows up at Anfield will be unrecognisable from the disgraceful rabble that bent over at the Etihad. The price of being hated I guess.

 

City have won eight of their last nine and we’re drawing more than Tony Hart. That’s a big problem and although nothing is over yet and there are a lot of points still to play for, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that we now need to win every game to even stand a chance. It still might not be enough, but we’ve got no control over what City do so there’s no point being overly concerned about that right now.

 

What we should be concerned about are our own performances. Let’s be honest here, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever to suggest that we can win all of our remaining games. Nothing. We’re not losing, mainly because the defence is fucking boss, but we aren’t winning enough either because the attack is so fucking streaky. Bottom line - I don’t trust the forwards to deliver anymore. They’ve misfired too many times this season, whereas the defence have had less than a handful of poor games.

 

We’ve kept five clean sheets in a row in all competitions but we’ve only won one of those games. Over the course of the entire season we’ve had eight draws and in five of those we kept a clean sheet. In the others, we conceded only one in each game. If the attack had found the net just once in each of those games we’d have eight more points and would have a lead to take to Munich. The forwards are fucking killing us, and who could have seen that coming?

 

We didn’t play well against Everton but we still should have won fairly comfortably. You can argue that we didn’t deserve to win based on how we played and you’ll get no real argument from me on that, but deserved or not, we should have won because we had all of the chances.

 

It was a massively frustrating game because everything was there for us to win it. Everton were made up with the draw but in fairness they didn’t play for it. This wasn’t like last week when United just got everyone behind the ball and tried to stop us. The Blues didn’t do that, they might be shite but they had a go and tried to win the game, and because of that there was space for us to exploit. We did exploit it to some degree and we created some great chances. We just wasted them.

 

We didn’t control the game as we should have done but I’d give Everton a lot of credit for that as they made it difficult and maintained a really high work rate. They didn’t play much football and Pickford was back to doing what he did under Allardyce and spent most of the game kicking for touch. I had hoped we’d see them repeat the hilarious “Man City-lite” style we saw at Anfield, but sadly not.

 

Their work rate was impressive, no doubt fuelled by the hissing, venomous “support” from the home crowd. They’ve barely make a sound at Goodison all season and most of them hate their own team these days, but they hate us more. The chance to stop the Reds going back to the top of the league meant they turned in the performance of their lives. Both on the pitch and in the stands. 

 

Everton’s players absolutely ran themselves ragged against us. You won’t see that from them again this season. Job done now. I didn’t think they’d be able to keep up the pace they set early in the game and assumed they’d tire, opening it up for us late on. That never really happened though. If anything we looked more leggy than they did, which is a worry.

 

Time on the ball was at a premium but it wasn’t the blood and thunder derby games of old. We should have played better than we did but it wasn’t all bad either. We’ve played a lot worse than this on numerous occasions this season. At least we had chances in this game. If we’d taken one or two that would have put an entirely different slant on how we played. 

 

 

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[Jenson]

I agree to a large extent that the result is mainly on Salah, one miss is forgiveable but if we want to win the league he can't be missing both. However, the main issue for me is midfield. If we'd had any sort of control in the middle of the park then we would have been able to push them back and create a lot more chances than we did. All in all, it was shite, and I'm on the side now that we've more than likely blown it.

[bossy]

Sadly everything you’ve written is true. The substitutions were head scratchers, totally counterproductive in a must win and sadly Mo has no confidence at all in his right peg. He beats someone then turns back again, when he shoots the keeper can tell what he’s going to do. Bobby has been even worse this season. Anyway, you never know. Upwards and hopefully onwards.

[Mark M]

Agree with so much of this. I wouldn't swap Klopp for anyone else but he's made mistake's recently with his subs that have cost us.

The Utd match they had to make 3 enforced subs and ended up with kids playing in midfield and the subs we did made us worse.

Yesterday the 3 subs killed us completely Milner and Firmino gave everton the ball more than their own players did.

 

[AdamD]

Dont disagree with the comments about Mo, he should be sticking at least one of those chances away. However you cant overlook the fact that there is pressure on the front three because there is almost zero chance of a goal from the midfield. All workhorses and no goal threat. Not saying they are bad players per se but oh for the days of a midfield who could chip in with goals. I hate to say it but even Utd midfield have midfielders who look to get in the box and finish, City have goals threats all over the place. This is from Premier League official site for midfielders. Says it all

 

Rank	Player	Club	Nationality	Stat
1.	Paul Pogba	Manchester United	France	11
1.	Gylfi Sigurdsson	Everton	Iceland	11
3.	Luka Milivojevic	Crystal Palace	Serbia	8
3.	Felipe Anderson	West Ham United	Brazil	8
5.	David Brooks	AFC Bournemouth	Wales	6
5.	Riyad Mahrez	Manchester City	Algeria	6
5.	Henrikh Mkhitaryan	Arsenal	Armenia	6
5.	Roberto Pereyra	Watford	Argentina	6
5.	Lucas Moura	Tottenham Hotspur	Brazil	6
5.	André Schürrle	Fulham	Germany	6
5.	David Silva	Manchester City	Spain	6
5.	Diogo Jota	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Portugal	6
13.	Dele Alli	Tottenham Hotspur	England	5
13.	Christian Eriksen	Tottenham Hotspur	Denmark	5
13.	Ryan Fraser	AFC Bournemouth	Scotland	5
13.	Ilkay Gündogan	-	Germany	5
13.	James Maddison	Leicester City	England	5
13.	Bernardo Silva	Manchester City	Portugal	5
13.	James Ward-Prowse	Southampton	England	5
20.	Michail Antonio	West Ham United	England	4

[Josef Svejk]

Milner is always shit from the bench. Just can't get up to speed.

 

Lallana is done. A waste of space at this stage. Like Sturridge.

 

But the non-use of Shaq or Keita yesterday was sheer cowardice.

[Pudns]

Great report, Henderson shudv put his laces through it with the chance he had also instead of trying to place it!

[johnsusername]

That's a scathing report Dave. And i agree with all of it.

 

Keita (£53m) and Shaqiri (probably worth at least £40m) sat on the bench when we need a goal. My head was in my hands when I saw Lallana getting ready to come on. He looked like he was running through treacle when someone put the ball through past Coleman. 

 

As you say, Everton are poor, and didn't look like scoring. 

 

The last 20 minutes was shambolic.

 

It's over. We're not going to win 9 games in a row. I'm not sure we can win 2 games in a row. It's been a great season, and we've done well. But we're not winning the league, not now. 

 

To be honest a couple of seasons ago i'd made peace that we wouldn't win the league ever again, the game is now sewn up by the oil and gas giants. It's hard to compete against. And maybe we'll become a cup team - I'd fucking love that right now.

 

One trophy we've won in 12 years. One single pot.

[ZonkoVille77]

Salah's mind is in Spain and has been for a while. Stinks. 

[an tha]

2 hours ago, mark melia said:

Great report, Henderson shudv put his laces through it with the chance he had also instead of trying to place it!

There is a reason he has 2 goals in his last 100 plus apperances for us....

 

I thought it was a terrible attempt - worst miss of the game IMO...he should have lashed it, had he there was little to no chance of him missing - the shitty placed shot allowed the block.

[El Rojo]

2 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

Salah's mind is in Spain and has been for a while. Stinks. 

He's doing a wonderful job of looking nothing like a Barcelona or Real target at the moment.

 

Seriously though, I'm not sure either would be interested at the price we'd be charging, given that we seem to have our house in order in terms of transfers these days.

[ZonkoVille77]

9 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

He's doing a wonderful job of looking nothing like a Barcelona or Real target at the moment.

 

Seriously though, I'm not sure either would be interested at the price we'd be charging, given that we seem to have our house in order in terms of transfers these days.

 

I just think there's more behind the scenes that we're not aware of. He has had a bit of a strop going on since the start of the season and some days looks like he just couldn't be arsed. Even when he makes a mistake on the pitch it's rare that he'll acknowledge it to his team mates. Anyhow it's not fair to single him out when Firmino has been muck this year and Klopp not helping things with stupid substitutions. 

[Section_31]

The problem with us for years has been that we've had too many mediocre players and too few good ones. That's changing, it used to be 30/70 now I reckon it's 70/30, but the flaws are still there especially in the case of squad depth.

 

For me, we're still missing an out and out goalscorer. We've got three attacking midfielders, but the difference between the two is that if you've got a Fowler or a Torres, you only need two chances and they'll take one. Ours need between three and five depending on their form and mood. Bobby is the worst for this and always has been. 

 

Our other problem is lack of strength in depth. When you're bringing on the likes of Leillana to dig you out of a hole you're pretty much fucked.

 

But luck, where once was Henderson now stands Fabinho. where once stood Karius stands Allison. We're getting there. I'm gutted about yesterday but we're getting there. 

[RobbieOR]

2 hours ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

Salah's mind is in Spain and has been for a while. Stinks. 

 

He was the league's top scorer up until last Wednesday. 

[bigal]

Sadly I concur with everything you say, hard to be positive despite all those who keep saying we still have every chance.

VVD is a great player, has he had a poor match? Best defender since the great days of winning the League.

Any player at this level who is so one footed does my head in, Mo is one of those and cost himself and the team goals yesterday by trying to shift it so much. He has great skills in turning which enables him to get away with it often but it wastes time in the box allowing the defenders to regroup.

The substitutions were completely barking mad. 

Mostly though I am so annoyed at how the players are so passive in letting other teams dictate play, we should be grabbing hold of these games and making victories happen, instead the draw was obvious early second half. Death by draws.

 

[3 Stacks]

4 hours ago, AdamD said:

Dont disagree with the comments about Mo, he should be sticking at least one of those chances away. However you cant overlook the fact that there is pressure on the front three because there is almost zero chance of a goal from the midfield. All workhorses and no goal threat. Not saying they are bad players per se but oh for the days of a midfield who could chip in with goals. I hate to say it but even Utd midfield have midfielders who look to get in the box and finish, City have goals threats all over the place. This is from Premier League official site for midfielders. Says it all

 

Rank	Player	Club	Nationality	Stat
1.	Paul Pogba	Manchester United	France	11
1.	Gylfi Sigurdsson	Everton	Iceland	11
3.	Luka Milivojevic	Crystal Palace	Serbia	8
3.	Felipe Anderson	West Ham United	Brazil	8
5.	David Brooks	AFC Bournemouth	Wales	6
5.	Riyad Mahrez	Manchester City	Algeria	6
5.	Henrikh Mkhitaryan	Arsenal	Armenia	6
5.	Roberto Pereyra	Watford	Argentina	6
5.	Lucas Moura	Tottenham Hotspur	Brazil	6
5.	André Schürrle	Fulham	Germany	6
5.	David Silva	Manchester City	Spain	6
5.	Diogo Jota	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Portugal	6
13.	Dele Alli	Tottenham Hotspur	England	5
13.	Christian Eriksen	Tottenham Hotspur	Denmark	5
13.	Ryan Fraser	AFC Bournemouth	Scotland	5
13.	Ilkay Gündogan	-	Germany	5
13.	James Maddison	Leicester City	England	5
13.	Bernardo Silva	Manchester City	Portugal	5
13.	James Ward-Prowse	Southampton	England	5
20.	Michail Antonio	West Ham United	England	4

I wouldn't fault our midfielders for that, though. Our midfield setup has been defensive and agricultural for years to lessen the workload of the front three. None of Wijnaldum, Milner, Fabinho and Henderson are ever in the box. Lallana, Keita and Shaqiri get more freedom to get forward but they barely get on the pitch anymore, presumably because they aren't good enough defensively. 

[Davelfc]

It's gone, horrible to admit it but it"s gone. Neil Atkinson from the Anfield wrap was spouting some bullshit after the Watford game about how you should be enjoying this, basically the gobshite was telling fans how he thinks you should behave and how he views you if you're not. Well fuck you, I hate those kind of super fans.

 

I've enjoyed very little of this little challenge so far, the start was fun but as soon as the performances started to waver it became nervy and something that is supposed to be entertaining and take your mind of the shitness of everything, suddenly became an issue in itself. I suppose if I was downing the vodka like Atkinson then maybe it would have been more fun, maybe that is the key.

 

I'll give you a different perspective, the more invested in us you are the more losing hurts. The more nervous you get, the less enjoyable it is. I'm not vodka fuelled but I stand by what I say, you support the team any way you want but fuck off if you try to judge me or tell me how I should support the club. 

 

Being a realist I can now accept that it's over. I'm not happy about that but it is what it is. Winning the title isn't about how many shit performances you can spawn into points, it's about how you can consistently perform better that what is in front of you week in and week out for the whole season. The spawny nervy wins are supposed to be rare occurrences between the brilliance and not almost every week. 

 

City show no sign of dropping the quality and determination while we sputter on with something that kills you, inconsistency. 

 

What we have achieved has been nothing short of a miracle, against a club as financially doped as city the fucking cheating bastards, we've kept up with them. With a few players and Sturridge ditched and some decent purchases in the summer there's a chance that we can use the experience of this season in to next season. 

 

We are too good of a team on our day not to win something soon, we've come so close. 

 

On yesterday, I'll take another view. The players let Klopp down, it was little to do with his substitutions and everything to do with some of the players on the pitch. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ZonkoVille77]

1 hour ago, RobbieOR said:

 

He was the league's top scorer up until last Wednesday. 

 

Do you think he'll be with Liverpool next season?

[mike23]

Good report. I'm starting to think we're just cursed in the league. We finally sort out the defence after years of keystone cop defending, and the forwards go to shit instead. If the front 3 had performed anything like they had last season then we would have absolutely walked the league, even up against the financially doped juggernaut that is City. Mane has probably been about the same as last year - he's been inconsistent this year but he was by far the least consistent of the front 3 last year, too - but the form of Salah and Firmino has just fallen off a cliff. As you say, I think it's more likely Salah was having the season of his life last year and we're getting his general level now - a very decent player but too inconsistent to really be considered world class.  They've not really shown up in any of the big away games this year - other than at maybe Spurs, and even then they were wasteful as hell. The failure of Keita to make an impact has perhaps highlighted the contrasting situations at the two clubs. Every big signing we make has to be an instant success, while they can get away with signing a few expensive duds. They signed Mahrez for a similar amount and he's had a pretty minimal impact on their season (I know he scored the winner at the weekend, but they've basically had a 50 million fringe player with him).

 

Good point about the difference in efforts teams make against us and City, too. We all knew it would be the case with Everton - our failure is their only hope of success - but the fans of other clubs definitely want City to win it over us, and I think a lot of the players do, too. Certainly with the fans it's down to a hatred of us while no one really cares about City, but I think players of teams like Chelsea and United would find City winning it more bearable as it would be a lot easier to  justify their only failure to win the league. If City win it then they can just say they lost out to a team with a much more expensive squad, but if we were to win it they'd have no such excuse.

[Mark M]

Good report as usual Dave. I can remember reacting the same way to the attempted cross by Salah in the second half. 

Another moment that wound me up was in injury time when there was about 30 seconds to go Henderson is screaming/ shouting and trying to get everyone pumped up.

I was just watching him thinking its about 20 minutes too late for that and you've been anonymous in the second half as well. 

[Kevin D]

1 hour ago, RobbieOR said:

 

He was the league's top scorer up until last Wednesday. 

 

Doesn't change a thing, for me.

 

If anything, it just makes me hate him even more.

[RobbieOR]

28 minutes ago, ZonkoVille77 said:

 

Do you think he'll be with Liverpool next season?

 

Yes, Madrid are after Hazard and Barcelona don't need him. 

[RobbieOR]

Just now, Kevin D said:

 

Doesn't change a thing, for me.

 

If anything, it just makes me hate him even more.

 

Heard he rubbed his hands in a meeting with Klopp and said 'you can't afford to keep me'. 

[SasaS]

Maybe he should start shaving regularly for a while? It may confuse defenders, they'd think, where has that little bearded one gone that always drops his shoulder and then tries to curl it with his left foot in the right corner? Wonder what this one will do?

[Crazy Dave]

Every title winning team has those statement wins whereby they produce a huge performance and do enough to get over the line against a title or a local rival along the way. The last 3 big tests we've faced are City, United and Everton away and we've fluffed each one of those. 3 points in any of those games would have been absolutely massive. 

 

Like others, you just can't shake the feeling that we're fading at the exact time that City are gaining strength. We've clearly got a problem when the front 3 don't produce, like yesterday and versus Utd, along with a crippling lack of goals from the midfield. We had the chance in January to address either one of these situations, but chose not to long before January even arrived. 

 

All this being said, the hysterical overreaction from some supporters hasn't helped the cause one iota. The Leicester game for instance, the team actually suffered because people in the crowd were shitting themselves when they should have been getting behind the team. Some of the players get dogs abuse on social media these days. We've all felt this 29 years, but we don't help ourselves on occasion. Likewise those pronouncing the race as all over once City lost a couple in December when it was obvious City retained the potential to win 12 games on the bounce.